Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1887-12-09
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
FARM NOTES.
FArTENING FOWLS.

FATTENING FOWLS.
All kinds of fowls are naturally
too active to lay on fat in proper
ton to the feed eaten ~ long as
allowed 20 run at large. Placing
them in a dark room, giving light
only when feeding, will keep them
quiet and fatten in ten or twelve
DAYS better than q mouths feed
ing will do without. DO not keep
them peuued too long, as their
health may be injured ana they
will grow poor again.
POACHING MEADOWS IN WINTER.
Few farmers realize how much
damage stock do to meadows or
other grass lands by roaming over
them in winter. The tramping Of
cattle or horses through the mud
in open weather is a damage to the
land, not only the following year,
but as long as the field is unplough-
ed. And if the land is intended
for spring ploughlng the damage is
scarcely less. The trampled soil
turns MP hard and lumpy, and 1t
takes half the summer to put 1t in
as good condition as it ought to be
by ploughing and once dragging.
DRINK FOR FATTENING COWS.
While COW gives milk she
drinks more than at any other
time. When she begins to fatten
she cannot be made to drink so
much. If a fattening COW or steer
is given roots, apples or pumpkins
il will often scarcely drink any
thing. One reason il that the
fattening process consists in part
in changing the water in its flesh
to fat, which is the great advan-
tage IN making fat meat richer and
more nutritive than that from un-
fattened animals.
WASTING CORN on HOGS.
There is no surer way to waste
corn than to feed it in the ear,
hard and indigestible, to hogs late
in the fall that have been used to
other and softer feed. The hogs
will not eat it well, as their gums
are tender and the hard kernels
make their mouths sore. What
they DO eat gives them little good,
as may be seen by examining their
excrement. Kill such an animal
after one or two weeks feeding
with corn in the ear, and It's in
testines will he found worn thin by
the rough food 1t has eaten. We
doubt whether there is prof. in
feeding unshelled hard corn to
hogs at any age. 1t il perhaps the
most convenient way for the lazy,
shiftless farmers; like most Of his
expedients to avoid trouble, there
Is no profit in it.
BRAN FOR BREEDING ANIMALS.
There is no more important item
in winter feeding Of stock for most
farmers than to have always a
good supply Of wheat bran. This
is especially valuable for breeding
stock bearing their young. Bran
IS rich in bone and muscle forming
clements of food. and it serves
another valuable purpose IN keep
ing the bowels open and doing
away with the constituting effects
of the dry TODD unusually given in
winter. For stock not breeding
rye bran is as good as wheat, and
whole rye may be ground for
feed with great advantage. But
for animals with young, wheat is
much preferable, as the ergot in
rye may produce abortion. a
wheat bran mash given twice a
day will do more to keep stock in
good health than any other food
that can be furnished.
BOILED CIDER APPLE SAUCE.
Farmers who have apples can
provide themselves with one OF the
best, as well as one Of the most
inexpensive sauces for winter use.
All they have to do is to boil down
cider, turning five or six gallons of
sweet unfermented juice INTO one
and cooking in 1t sweet apples
The cider as usually made will give
the sauce sufficient tartness. 1t
should be boiled down before
beginning to ferment, as this pro-
cess changes its sugar into alcohol,
which entirely evapOTates in boil
ing. Boiled cider, if put in covered
Jars without sealing, will keep
good for years, as the boiling ex-
pels all the air, and in covered
Jar unmoved none is likely to pene-
trate it. But il it is to be left
where it must be disturbed fire.
quently, it is safer 10 put the boiled
cider IN caus and seal them.
PRESERVING EGGS.
En0lisb authOritips have as vet